Going the distance and then some

This time a racing strategy of putting the pedal to the metal and keeping the right amount of rubber on the road paid off for Dave Bailey.

Unlike the night before at Merrittville Speedway, where a flat tire prematurely ended his pursuit of victory, the Hagersville driver was good to go at the All-Canadian Championships at New Humberstone Speedway in Port Colborne.

And go he went. After pulling away from the field and battling Justin Ramsay and Jason Fontaine for the lead following a Lap 6 restart, Bailey became the front-runner 21 circuits and set the pace the rest of the way for his fourth victory of the season at Humberstone.

Rounding out the top five in the 40-lapper were Billy Bleich Jr., Trevor DeBoer, Ramsay and Fontaine. Bleich, Bailey, Bryce Richardson and Ken Sargent won the heats, and Jim Lampman won the consolation race.

Also taking home his fourth checkered flag of 2018 at the Port Colborne track was Cody McPherson of St. Catharines. He overtook front-runner Adam Leslie with 15 laps remaining in an extended-distance Sportsman feature and held off Brad Rouse for the win.

Leslie, James Michael Friesen, Saturday night’s Sportsman winner at Merrittville; and defending track champion Chad Chevalier trailed McPherson and Rouse across the finish line.

Dylan Davidson, Leslie and Chevalier were the heat winners.

Reigning points champion Jeff Dayman and Ken Winfield started the 30-lap main event in the Late Models class in the front row, but they didn’t stay there long. David Pangrazio overtook Dayman for the lead six laps later and held off Sam Pennacchio and Rob Pietz the rest of the way for the victory.

The Batavia, N.Y., driver took his first career checkered flag at Humberstone despite losing ground to two restarts.

Pennacchio, Pietz, Dayman and Tim Gillespie rounded out the top five. Pietz and Pangrazio each set the pace in a qualifying heat.

In Sunday night’s 20-lap Mini Stocks feature, Olivier Larocque needed 14 laps to overtake fellow Port Colborne racer Leroy Buscumb for the lead and appeared well on his way to victory lane after that.

However, a caution on Lap 19 made things interesting, setting up a one-lap dash for cash that

Larocque won.

It was Larocque’s third victory of the year at his hometown track.

Jeremy Cooper, Evan Curtis and Cole Hardy rounded out the top five in the feature. Buscumb, Larocque and John Lubeck set the pace set in the qualifiers.

In the Pro 4 Truck feature, Welland’s Mitch Dumont led a top five of Danny Wurster, Vince Fargnoli, Justin Towers and Doug Crawford to the checkered flag for his sixth victory of the season.

Andy Imbeault and Rick St. Pierre won the Thunder on the Dirt Vintage Series feature races.

Weather permitting, racing returns Sunday night with Verge Insurace Centre sponsoring a program featuring the BEI Lightning Series for Sportsman and a visit by the Action Sprint Tour. Gates open at 4:30 p.m. with racing getting underway two hours later.

Track Talk: A total of 123 racers were signed in pitside for the 56th edition of the All-Canadian Championships … Highlights included the introduction of drivers from the Mini Stocks class.